I am using a UK Mac keyboard for this example, but the same or similar problems may occur with other Mac keyboard layouts


UK mac keyboard's _ - = + section

In Ableton Live to zoom in you press the " + " key, to zoom out you press the " - " key. Simple enough, but very annoying for some.
All UK (and possibly many other region) macbooks and wireless keyboards have a dedicated " - " key but don't have a dedicated " + " key. This means you have to press " - " to zoom out, and effectively " shift " and " = " to zoom in... an unnecessary pain.
Ableton have been asked loads of times to make an option to make " = " the zoom in key, but they still haven't.

So here is how to solve the problem (this will only swap the keys in Ableton Live):

1. Download and install an amazing key remapping application called Karabiner.

2. Once installed it will live in your menubar and will resemble a square. Click on it and open up the preferences (If it isn't running straight after install, open it from your main applications folder).


3. Inside Preferences navigate to the "Misc & Uninstall" tab and click on the "Open private.xml" button.



4. That will open a finder window that only contains one file- "private.xml". Open this with TextEdit.

5. Copy and paste the following underneath the line that says " <root> ".

<appdef>
<appname>LIVE</appname>
<equal>com.ableton.live</equal>
</appdef>

<item>
<name>Swap Equal and Plus in Ableton Live</name>
<identifier>private.swap_equal_and_plus</identifier>
<only>LIVE</only>
<autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::EQUAL, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::EQUAL</autogen>
<autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::EQUAL, KeyCode::EQUAL, VK_SHIFT</autogen>
</item>

so it should look like this:



6. Save and close private.xml, head back to the Karabiner preferences again, and click on the "Change Key" tab, then click on the "Reload XML" button.



7. Now just check the box next to "Swap Equal and Plus in Ableton Live".

8. Open System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items, and add Karabiner to the list.

Drawback 1 - not really a problem but it will also swap the keys if you are typing in any text in Ableton Live e.g. if you rename a track something like "Kick+", you may forget the about +/= key swap!

Drawback 2 - if you use older iZotope plugins (trash2, nectar2, insight, alloy2, ozone5) then this application, as with most other OS X enhancing apps such as Moom or Yoink, will cause almost insta-crash when you open one of these plugins in Ableton Live (and possibly any other DAW).
This isn't a problem at all with newer iZotope plugins such as ozone6 or ozone7 (I haven't tested with any of the remaining iZotope plugins).

Hope this is helpful, and it should be easily adapted to work with different regional keyboards.

If anything doesn't work, make sense, or if you think i have skimmed over any important details, then let me know and I will make appropriate changes.